Friday, October 12, 2012

The
acknowledged territory of the Republic of the Philippines has since
Edsa I been apportioned to foreign countries: a piece here, a piece
there. Sabah, ARMM and now the expanded Bangsamoro and the Sulu Sea.
This is “ap-piece-ment” of the Republic to the foreign powers and
interests. Led by a scion of the Yellow ruling class, the country now
submits again the Filipino people to humiliation and imperial
victimization again in an onerous, destructive ceding of Cotabato City,
Isabela City, and the municipalities of Baloi, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar,
Tagoloan and Tangkal in Lanao del Norte province, barangays from
Kabacan, Carmen, Aleosan, Pigkawayan, Pikit and Midsayap towns in
Cotabato City, and the greatest prize of all — the Sulu Sea where
Exxonmobile and others have has set its eyes on.

GRP peace panel
negotiator Marvic Leonen says no foreign influence figured in the peace
deal, but not so secret “dirty little secret” is that the USIP (United
Institute for Peace) led by J. Robinson West of the largest energy
consulting firm PFC Energy, has its dirty hand all over it. Leonen’s
prevarication shows that the peace talk panel representing the
Philippines and its work deserves no respect from the Filipino people as
the panel is devoid of integrity. The peace talks are an expensive
sham. The UNDP stepped up to gift the major Philippine peace panel
negotiator an N-Peace Network award, to reinforce the respectability of
this ap-piece-ment and the negotiators who carved off more pieces of
Filipino flesh to the Western oil interest. UN agencies are invariably
used as tools of US and Western powers to legitimize imperial projects
with such honorific blessings, such as in Kosovo which was wrest from
Serbia.

The other title for this article is “Pipsqueak Leaders,”
highlighting how small or insignificant this country’s leadership is
before the subterfuges and pressures of the US and Britain (represented
by client Malaysia) to negotiate away 75 percent of the economic wealth
of the country. As the rebel MILF band’s vice chief for Political
Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar told the Philippines over a radio interview
their 75 percent share is non-negotiable. Ninety percent of that 75
percent will go to the US and Britain while crumbs will be thrown to the
likes of Jaafar empowering them to be little potentates like the US
surrogates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, etc. Can Bangsamoro ever
become a developed state? Not in anyone’s lifetime. It’ll be just like
feudal, archaic Middle Eastern kingdoms the US controls and ready when
needed to be used to control US hegemony as the potentates do in the
Middle East.

Pipsqueak Philippine media pushes “ap-piece-ment,” too:
from Inquirer: “The glowing praises are richly deserved. After a
protracted internecine war, one that has brought untold suffering on
Muslim Mindanao, there’s real hope the war may finally end.”

What
about he “untold suffering” of Filipino soldiers who fought to defend
all Filipinos’ sovereignty and the Filipinos’ continuing impoverishment
with the looting of 75 percent of its economic wealth in the Sulu Sea? In
the Philippine Star one writes, “Leonen has convinced me from a
distance that it is providential the Bangsamoro will be born during the
watch of President Aquino whose only concern is peace and prosperity for
the people of Mindanao … Since I see no alternative, I am willing to
take my chance with it.” Providential my eye, curses instead: Cory
Aquino gave Sabah away; BS Aquino III cedes even more territories.

No
alternative? The alternative is clear — defend national sovereignty
over all our territory undisputed in any international forum. President
Marcos defended that sovereignty, won and laid the basis for a durable
peace with the Tripoli Agreement; but after he was deposed in 1986 by
the conspiracy of the US and local oligarchs, the US stooge who
succeeded him, Corazon Aquino, returned to the country the leader of the
defeated MNLF and reinvigorated the secession movement. Likewise, under
President Estrada the MILF was demolished at Camp Abubakar and its
leader Hashim Salamat fled to Malaysia and beseeched US President Bush
to restore him in Mindanao. When Estrada was deposed by the same forces
that deposed Marcos, the Edsa II successor Gloria Arroyo restored the
MILF to its former glory. Forgetting is not an option.

Two years back
I wrote “The Traitor Class,” about the Yellows cabal in Philippine
politics that serve as handmaiden of the foreign powers. While that
class runs the show in the country the Philippines will never win any of
its struggles against the imperial and neo-colonial powers. How I envy
those countries in Latin America that are already in the process of
successfully throwing off the yoke of colonialism by nationalizing
foreign resource-extraction and public utilities corporations, striking
independent foreign policies, respecting each other’s sovereignty,
opposing foreign interventionism. Venezuela just overwhelmed the US
sponsored presidential candidate for Hugo Chavez. In the Philippines,
time will come when we can revisit the Mindanao issues and recreate a
truly just peace that keeps the national intact for all Filipinos
benefit and welfare.

Monday, August 6, 2012

It
would be an unenviable situation that congressmen allies of Noynoy will
find themselves in today as the House votes on the Reproductive Health
(RH) bill since it seems that they are caught between the devil and the
deep blue sea.

Their position becomes more precarious as the House
majority leader pushed nominal voting for the bill instead of the mere
raising of hands.

The majority leader claimed that nominal voting bespeaks of transparency, rather than a viva voce vote.

That
could well be true. However, given that Noynoy is pushing the
congressional enactment of the RH bill, nominal voting could very well
have something to do with knowing just who voted for, or against it, as
it is generally known that when the Malacañang resident wants a
congressional vote on a measure he wants passed, great are the Palace
rewards for the congressmen who go along with what Noynoy wants.Noynoy
tried to marshall his forces in a caucus yesterday, worried that the
vote today would be marred by absences after the Church gave those who
will vote in favor of the bill something to think about related to next
year’s elections after the prayer rally at Edsa Shrine against the bill
which is evidently a show of force by the bishops on the Church’s
diminished but still potent clout..... MORE

Presidential
pressure must certainly be piling up on the Judicial and Bar Council
(JBC) to amend its rule on disqualifying nominees and candidates for
positions in the Supreme Court (SC) and include Noynoy’s favorite bet
for the chief justice position, Leila de Lima in the shortlist, despite
the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) having categorically stated
that the disbarment cases against her will be pursued.

Noynoy’s
pressure on the JBC has become much too evident, considering the fact
that the JBC has again postponed its voting for the selection of the
candidates scheduled yesterday. His loyal ally, Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., has
already prepared an amendment to change the JBC rule on
disqualification, for De Lima’s benefit.The body claimed that, with
the re-entry of the two members of Congress in the JBC, more time is
needed for them to review and assess the qualifications of the nominees
to be included in the shortlist which would be submitted to the
President..... MORE

Hillary Clinton’s six-and-a-half hour trip to Malawi literally went
by in a buzz. The US Secretary of State has received not-so-warm
welcomes from several countries she’s visited, but in Malawi she was
reportedly chased onto her plane.

Chased onto herhttp://www.rt.com/news/hillary-clinton-bees-mawali-962/ plane by a swarm of bees, that is.

Clinton ran
for cover and boarded her jet to escape the bees, which attacked her at
Malawi’s international airport, the local Nyasa Times quotes witnesses
as saying. The Secretary was preparing to board a Johannesburg-bound
flight when the stinging swarm forced her to make a quicker entry than
planned..... MORE

Just two days after phony posts appeared on Reuters’ blog, the
agency’s Twitter account was also hacked. Once again, the hoax tweets
informed readers of rebel losses in Syria, and reported fake White House
admissions of supporting al-Qaeda.

Many of the tweets were sensational, but fraudulent statements coming out of the White House.

“Obama takes Al Qaeda off list of terrorist organisation, says Al Qaeda no longer a threat to US interests,” the Reuters Tech account tweeted Sunday..... MORE

With
news of increased smuggling activities all over the place, the latest
being the now celebrated(?) rice smuggling in Subic and the
multibillion-peso smuggling of meat products, it behooves Finance
Secretary Cesar Purisima and his associates, in and out of the agency,
to review their oft repeated promises that they will be able to ward off
smuggling of other products, especially cigarettes and tobacco as they
try to railroad passage of the questionable “Sin Tax” law increasing
excise tax on these items which most experts believe will result in
smuggling. The experience of many countries including the United States
is instructive.

More than five years ago, 27 states in the US
decided to raise taxes on tobacco in a move to pump revenue into their
cash strapped treasuries. The state officials had the shock of their
lives. Not only did the cash increases hardly materialize, a fresh
scourge cropped up before their very eyes. Michigan’s Mackinac Center
for Public Policy which closely tracks tobacco tax rates across the
United States noted that the increases “inspired an increasingly
dangerous cigarette industry where big profits lured criminal gangs and
drug traffickers into the booming markets.” The Center noted that
smuggling is an “unintended consequence of high cigarette taxes.” .... MORE

Another young man has lost his life undergoing a “rite of passage” that has been deemed unlawful.

Marc
Andrei Marcos, law student, in joining a law school fraternity, went
through an initiation process that, in the end, took rather than gave
him a future.

His family grieves, concerned citizens are righteously
indignant, and the authorities are in the thick of investigations. The
news reveals that some 20 individuals may be involved in the death of
young Marcos.

Government officials have reiterated that hazing is
against the law. “It is a heinous crime under the law. In fact, it is
non-bailable,” said Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, officer in
charge of the Department of Justice (DoJ), in a Daily Tribune report
last Aug. 2.

For this non-bailable offense, students of the law are,
ironically, risking their future in order to help assure themselves of a
future..... MORE

Our country was born through the blood and sacrifices of fraternity members.The
Katipunan was envisioned as a frat, called brotherhood at the time,
with Bonifacio — the Supreme Leader — entailing sacrifices and
millenarian practices for acceptance and leadership even at the time of
his death at the hands of his own “brothers,” or fratmates if we are to
call them now.

Frats have served the country well during dire straits.

The
RAM stood up against Marcos when this brotherhood of soldiers realized
he had gone too far. The Magdalo banded together to demand Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo’s ouster. Many university frat members have joined the
underground under a testy political situation with many of them
sacrificing their lives for their causes.

Each Filipino family has a
relative in a fraternity. Each province or region has its own
amalgamation of brotherhoods and sisterhoods, called sororities.
Majority of communities have them. The Catholic church has several
confraternities and is open about it..... MORE

WORRIED OVER ABSENCES OF ALLIES AFTER CHURCH RALLY Apparently
wanting to assure the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill two
days after the Catholic Church made a grand reminder to legislators
about its still potent political clout, President Aquino called a caucus
among Liberal Party (LP) members in the House of Representatives at
Malacañang on the eve of the voting for the bill.

Some House members
expressed fears that several legislators may resort to disappearing acts
during the day of the vote to prevent being targeted by the Church
during next year’s elections.

In a text message sent by the Office
of Communications Assistant Secretary Renato Marfil, the caucus is
scheduled at 1 p.m. today. However, there wasn’t any agenda indicated in
the text advisory regularly sent to Palace reporters for reference.
Even Aquino’s deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte confirmed
the caucus but did not give further details about the event..... MORE

The
pressure is mounting on President Aquino from opposite sides over the
Reproductive Health (RH) bill as the United Nations warned yesterday
that failure to pass the birth control law could reverse gains in
development goals a day after the powerful Catholic Church flexed its
muscles through a massive rally against the measure that goes to a vote
tomorrow.

The bill seeks to make it mandatory for the government to
provide free contraceptives in a country where more than 80 percent of
the population is Catholic and which has one of the highest maternal
mortality rates in Southeast Asia.

Ugochi Daniels, country
representative from the UN Population Fund, said she remained
“cautiously optimistic” that President Aquino’s allies who dominate the
House of Representatives could muster the numbers to pass the bill on
Tuesday after 14 years of often divisive debate.

“What is important now is to highlight the urgency of the bill,” Daniels said..... MORE

Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje said on Thursday the Department of Energy
(DoE) can now explore the seabed of Benham Rise for possible natural gas
and other mineral resources.

Paje revealed this as he included in
the DENR’s performance review in the Senate the approval of the
Philippines’ claim on the jurisdiction over the seabed resources in
Benham Rise area by the United Nation on April 12.

”It’s now ours. The UN has agreed. It’s already ours. The DoE can take the ball if they want to,” Paje said. Paje
told the Senate committee on finance that the Benham Rise is rich in
manganese and possibly, other minerals and natural gas..... MORE

Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje said on Thursday the Department of Energy
(DoE) can now explore the seabed of Benham Rise for possible natural gas
and other mineral resources.

Paje revealed this as he included in
the DENR’s performance review in the Senate the approval of the
Philippines’ claim on the jurisdiction over the seabed resources in
Benham Rise area by the United Nation on April 12.

”It’s now ours. The UN has agreed. It’s already ours. The DoE can take the ball if they want to,” Paje said. Paje
told the Senate committee on finance that the Benham Rise is rich in
manganese and possibly, other minerals and natural gas.

DENR
Undersecretary Peter Tiangco, who spearheaded the campaign to get the
jurisdiction of the Benham Rise seabed for 12 years, said if the DoE or
any department cannot explore the area at this time “the important thing
is it is now ours.”.... MORE

Malacañang
has raised the alert level for the deadly diseases leptospirosis and
dengue as the number of recorded cases doubled from that of 2011.

At a
press briefing in Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail
Valte said President Aquino has instructed the Department of Health
(DoH) to make sure that government hospitals and medical professionals
were ready to work round-the-clock mode to attend to the growing number
of leptospirosis victims which stood at 2,002 from January to July this
year, up from the 887 cases in the first seven months of 2011.

“The
Department of Health (DoH) has already assured us that all government
hospitals in the country have been put on stand-by, while government
hospital administrators have already been told to be ready and equipped
with whatever medicines are needed (as) medical professionals have
already made a commitment to be and available to serve at anytime
they’re needed,” Valte said..... MORE

The Las Piñas City government, after passing an
ordinance banning the use of plastics and styrofoams, has decreased its
garbage volume by 37 percent.

This after Las Piñas Mayor Vergel
Aguilar recently noted significant drop in volume of solid wastes
collected from households and commercial areas in the last three months.

Aguilar renewed his call for a continued practice of proper garbage
disposal and minimal use of plastics and styrofoams as food packaging
and carry-out bags.

Aguilar said there is about 37 percent decrease
in garbage volume collected by the city’s Environmental Sanitation
Office from households in 20 barangays, public markets and talipapa as
well as in all commercial center areas in Las Piñas.

The city’s 60
compactor trucks make an average of 105 trips per day to collect solid
wastes from households, 50 talipapa and wet markets and 15 public
markets. To date, the Environmental Sanitation Office said only about
four percent in plastic and styrofoam materials are found from the trash
collected..... MORE

An
official of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has
insisted it already served and enforced the preventive six-month
suspension order on Quezon City Councilor Roderick Paulate despite
refusal of his staff to receive the copy.

Nevertheless, DILG-QC
director Juan Juvian Ingeniero said the case was different from
Paulate’s colleague, Councilor Francisco Calalay Jr., whose staff
accepted the copy of the order without any resistance when he handed it
to his (Calalay) office on July 25.

That was the same time when he
served the order on Paulate, who is also a movie and television
personality, through his staff but the latter refused to receive it,
Ingeniero told members of the Quezon City Press Club.He recalled
that Paulate’s employees even blocked them when he and his staff posted
the order on the door of the local lawmaker’s office at the legislative
building.

Just the same, the DILG-QC official insisted that he
already served and enforced the preventive suspension order which he
also posted on the bulletin board of the city council..... MORE

Sunday, August 5, 2012

The
Supreme Court (SC) tried to sound Solomonic in its resolution of the
impasse on the Congress representation in the Judicial and Bar Council
(JBC), but in the end it was an admission of its abject inability to
rule independently and stick to its position.

The acting Carpio
Court’s decision to suspend its “executory” decision that Congress is
only entitled to one seat in the JBC was clearly a co-opting to the
whims of both the Palace and Congress on the issue.

While the
decision was not entirely a reversal of the earlier ruling, it exposed
the Carpio Court’s lack of resolve in defending what the SC justices had
already interpreted as what was contained in the Constitution which was
the expressed limit of only one representative for Congress in the
body.

The decision resulted in both legislative chambers to order
their representatives to withdraw from the nominating body which is
tasked to draft the shortlist for the SC chief justice candidates from
which Noynoy will choose the head of his reclaimed and pliant high
court..... MORE

Hate
to tell you “I told you so,” but I did tell you so, which is why the
nation now has not only a subservient-to-Malacañang Supreme Court (SC)
but also a high court petrified of a Congress, because both can easily
impeach and convict any SC justice they want — even when there is no
impeachable offense committed.

This has all come about because the
Malacañang tenant now knows how powerful money and position can be in
getting Congress to do his every bidding — including throwing out any
justice, especially the Chief Justice, and any impeachable officer
holding a constitutional office and convict them despite the absence of
an impeachable crime.

It was being preached then by Noynoy and his
Yellows, and yes, even some SC justices who were salivating for the
chief justice post, that the high bench was nothing but a Gloria Arroyo
court, and that with CJ Renato Corona heading the SC, never can the
Filipino people expect justice and impartiality in its decisions. This,
claimed the hypocrite of the first water Noynoy, was the reason he was
out to impeach and convict Corona, to reclaim the SC for the people..... MORE

“I cannot but be distressed by the continuing prejudice of our
justice system against my son and other political prisoners like him.”By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIOBulatlat.com

MANILA — The family of political detainee artist Ericson Acosta has
issued a new appeal to human rights advocates and Acosta’s friends and
supporters, this time regarding the detainee’s health problems.

Acosta’s father, Isaias, said his son is in immediate need of medical
attention because of a worsening kidney problem. Isaias, 79, said
Ericson, who has been detained for over a year since February 2011 in
Calbayog, Samar on false charges, is suffering from painful kidney
stones. He and his wife Liwayway, 80, are not in the peak of health
either and have their own share of health issues.

“We are both physically suffering due to our respective conditions
but nothing compares to the torment of knowing that our son continues to
be unjustly imprisoned,” he said.

Isais said that in his last visit to Acosta, his son said he had been
feeling persistent pain in his abdomen and lower back. The pain,
Acosta said, intensifies whenever he urinates. Now he has also noticed
spots of blood in his urine.

“My cousin, Ericson’s uncle, displayed similar symptoms before he
succumbed to prostate cancer. Ericson rarely complains when he is sick.
Even when he was arrested last year, his first words to me were, ‘Daddy
don’t worry about me. He always tells his mother not to fuss over him.
That’s how Ericson is. He suffers in silence. Once when he was still in
grade school, he waited until a stomachache had become too unbearable
before he finally told us to take him to the hospital. It turned out he
immediately needed to undergo an appendectomy. The doctor said we got
there in the nick of time,” Isaias said.

According to the detainee’s father, Acosta’s last check-up two years
ago revealed a renal function abnormality and a possible prostate
affliction.

“So as soon as we received word that he was in pain, we arranged for a
visit and asked our lawyers to immediately file a motion before the
court seeking urgent medical attention for my son. We had to skip the
visit because of my condition. But after we filed the motion, we were
told that the judge in charge of his case had just retired. How long
would it take until a new judge is installed? It is as if our
frustration with the slow resolution of Ericson’s case is not enough. We
are once again left bereft of immediate legal options,” he said..... MORE

Harmless traces of radioactive cesium have been discovered in fish
and seawater in several areas of Japan, as the country continues to
debate whether their fish is safe to consume and anti-nuke protests grow
in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT) stated that radioactive cesium, presumably from the
crippled Fukushima I nuclear plant, was found in seawater and fish in
several regions of the country, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported
from Tokyo.

The aquatic radiation was detected in central Japan
(Shizuoka Prefecture), the western part of central Honshu (Niigata) and
the country’s northeast (Iwate)..... MORE

Tehran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of
Iranian nationals kidnapped in the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday.
The Free Syrian Army claimed the Iranians were members of the elite
Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The
most popular official of the land, Vice President Jejomar Binay is
getting to be the new flavor of Malacañang and the Liberal Party(LP).
After Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona,
the Palace is now aiming its gun on Jojo, who is predicted by many
Filipinos to become the next President either by election or by
substitution due the people’s confidence and trust in his performance.

All
pollsters say he is the most trusted and popular official of the Aquino
administration. People believe in the sincerity and capability of the
Vice President because he is always one step ahead whenever there is a
need to help any Filipino. Whenever, there is a calamity such as a
typhoon or earthquake, VP Binay is already there at the site,

He is
also the darling of the OFWs because he is ready to help them, whether
in his various trips to the Middle East to help rescue some workers or
in China to save a worker to be sentenced to death..... MORE

The
speech was extra long. So many accomplishments have been deliriously
reported. So many projections were proudly made. So many issues have
been courageously addressed. So much water was even drunk to facilitate
more and more enumeration of successes achieved as well as aspirations
projected to be soon happily accomplished — preparing for war from
within and without. That is why there were those who felt they heard the
recitation of a long litany of joyful and glorious mysteries.

But
behind the report of the year-after many acts as well as year-ahead
envisioned numerous splendid agenda, there is something that can be
considered as ominous — sinister, disquieting, threatening. The
subject matter has extraordinary significance for the people of the
Philippines as well as grave implications for their dear country. But
such very significant as well as truly relevant concern was curiously
unsaid, strangely unmentioned..... MORE

WASHINGTON — The United States yesterday accused
China of raising tensions through a new military garrison in the South
China Sea as it called on all sides to lower tensions in the hotly
contested waters.

China announced last week that it was establishing
the tiny city of Sansha and a garrison on an island in the disputed
Paracel chain, infuriating the Philippines and Vietnam which have
accused Beijing of intimidation.
“We are concerned by the increase in
tensions in the South China Sea and are monitoring the situation
closely,” US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a
statement.

“In particular, China’s upgrading of the administrative
level of Sansha city and establishment of a new military garrison there
covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to
collaborative diplomatic efforts permanently inhabiting points in the
South China Sea until a code of conduct is reached.

The resolution,
sponsored by senators from both major parties, declared that the United
States was committed “to assist the nations of Southeast Asia to remain
strong and independent.”

During a 2010 visit to Vietnam, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton declared that the United States had a national
interest in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, through which
half of world cargo passes..... MORE

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council (NDRRMC) reported that Gener left 41 dead and affected 177,440
families or 800,944 people in 1,077 villages in 141 towns and 27 cities
in 35 provinces.

Of these, 3,904 families or 16,514 people are being served in 104 evacuation centers.

Damage
to property was estimated at P289,852,863.10, including P116,560,384 in
infrastructure and P172,792,479.10 in agriculture.

As this developed, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration that (Pagasa)
said flash floods and landslides may threaten the western section of
Luzon due to southwest monsoon while the a potential cyclone remains far
from the country.

At present, due to continuous rains, Pagasa said yesterday at least five dams in Luzon opened their gates.Pagasahydrologist
Gine Nievares said as of 7:20 a.m., Ipo Dam in Bulacan opened one gate
at a rate of 66.4 cubic meters per second..... MORE

Calling the government program seeking to distribute contraceptives
for free under the Reproductive Health (RH) bill a form of corruption,
nuns and priests led thousands of Catholics in a show of force yesterday
at the Edsa Shrine, a landmark that symbolized takeovers of past
governments, ahead of an August 7 vote on the bill at the House of
Representatives.

Leading the Catholic Church charge was Dagupan
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, a spiritual adviser of the family of
President Aquino, who made a pun on the Aquino administration’s “Kung
walang corrupt, walang mahirap” (No corruption, no poverty) slogan which
he said should not mean “kung walang anak, walang mahirap” (No baby, no
poverty).

Villegas, however, was not at the so-called prayer power
rally against the RH bill and his message was read by Henrietta de
Villa, a pro-life group leader.

Villegas said it is corruption that the government should cure, not procreation. The police estimated the crowd at about 7,000.

Villegas
was a staunch supporter and friend of Aquino’s mother, Corazon Aquino,
from the time she became President after the Edsa People Power
Revolution..... MORE

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has both good and bad news for the man on the street.

The
BSP has ruled out any further liberalization of the foreign exchange
(forex) as inflows of capital into the Philippines continued to be
strong.

But it also said the recent typhoons might influence the
country’s inflation rate while declining to say its impact for the month
of August.

“At this point in time, while there are no specific
additional measures, we continue to evaluate and assess if further steps
are needed to be taken to address capital inflows,” BSP Gov. Amando
Tetangco Jr. said.

The BSP has implemented five forex liberalization
measures since 2007, which resulted in what Tetangco described as the
“substantial opening of the foreign exchange regime.”

These measures
included increasing from $5,000 to $10,000 the limit on allowable
outward investment that can be bought from banks and other forex
entities without supporting documents; increasing the allowable dollar
purchases from banks by residents for non-trade current account
transactions (without the need for supporting documentation) and outward
investments (without the need for BSP approval)..... MORE

The Department of Interior and Local Government
(DILG) has given Quezon City good marks in local governance performance
in 2011 as one of the country’s highly urbanized cities.

Based on
the results of DILG’s local governance performance management system, QC
has obtained an overall performance rating of 4.71 percent last year,
improving by at least 3 percent the city’s 2010 performance rating,
which was recorded at 4.57 percent. In his report to Mayor Herbert
“Bistek” Bautista, DILG-QC Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero noted the
increase in the city’s performance rating was generated from improved
delivery of basic public services in five key areas, namely, valuing
fundamentals of good governance, administrative governance, social
governance, economic governance and environmental governance.

The
DILG gave the local government an excellent rating for environmental
governance for having strictly implemented waste segregation in the
city’s 142 barangays and even in the QC Hall..... MORE

Bullying marginalized, oppressed and powerless
(MOP) people may soon be declared as a criminal act punishable with
imprisonment and a fine.

AKO Bicol party-list Reps. Christopher Co,
Rodel Batocabe and Alfredo Garbin Jr. filed House Bill 6386 seeking to
stop such offensive and discriminatory acts against children, women and
indigenous people.“This bill will strengthen the constitutional
provision that the State values the dignity of every human person and
guarantees full respect for human rights,” Co said.

Co added the
people who belong to the MOPs like children, women, religious
minorities, the indigenous peoples, among others, are still subject of
the physical and verbal abuses of those “who are close-minded and
discriminatory against them.”

“No one has yet been prosecuted for these constitutionally offensive acts,” Co said..... MORE

Saturday, August 4, 2012

“The RH bill is about women’s access to healthcare, the right to
informed choice. This is not an issue of population control or a
question of religion or faith. Lawmakers, as well as the rest of the
Filipino people, should focus on the state of women and children’s
‘un-health’, and this should be the primary consideration when lawmakers
cast their vote to end debates and interpellation on August 7.” – Rep.
Luz Ilagan, Gabriela Women’s partyBy INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com

MANILA — On August 7, the House of Representatives would end the
debate on the so-called RH Bill, or the legislative proposal for a
reproductive health bill. For the last two years, the proposal has been
alternately vilified and praised; hailed as a solution to the worsening
state of maternal health care in the country, on the one hand, then
attacked as an instrument of Satan that will send women’s souls straight
to hell.

For the proponents of the RH bill, especially Gabriela Women’s Party,
the debate is simple: they want a law that will help guarantee
universal access to and information on reproductive health and maternal
care.

Now nearing the final stretch, the two bills House Bill No. 4244 or
An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood,
Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other
Purposes and Senate Bill No. 2378 or An Act Providing For a National
Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development stand to
be either approved or dismissed.

Among the strongest voices in Congress pushing for the passage of the
RH Bill are the representatives of Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP). From
the beginning of the debate, the two lawmakers Luz Ilagan and Emmi De
Jesus have argued that the issue goes beyond what the dominant Catholic
religious sector says or the lobby for perks and pork barrel: they argue
that what makes the RH bill necessary is the right of the women and all
Filipinos to affordable and reliable access to health care..... MORE

Noynoy Aquino is a certified meddlesome president, interfering in affairs that are not his to interfere in, that is for certain.

Even
as Noynoy always claims to respect the independence of the
constitutional offices, he is always found to have interfered in their
affairs, to the extent of directing them give him what he wants to have,
which these constitutional officers generally give in to what he wants.

This
time around, in a slip of the tongue, Noynoy admitted to lobbying the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines to get the IBP to dismiss the
disbarment cases against his loyal attack dog, Justice Secretary Leila
de Lima, which in turn would qualify her as a candidate for the top
judicial post.

Of course he claimed it is his legal team that is
helping De Lima in her disbarment case. But why should his legal team —
and with presidential permission and order, be tasked to aid De Lima in
her case pending in the IBP when she already has a slew of lawyers in
her department to do that for her — at least in preparing her brief to
the IBP to get her case dismissed? Or, short of that, she could easily
have hired a private lawyer to help her prepare her arguments before the
IBP board.... MORE

The UN General Assembly has voted in favor of a non-binding
resolution on Syria pushed by several Arab states. Before the vote,
Russia announced that it would not support the resolution, calling it
unbalanced.
The bill was passed with 133 votes in favor, 12 against, and 31 abstentions.

­The
resolution, authored by Saudi Arabia and actively supported by Egypt
and Bahrain, demands that President Bashar al-Assad transfer power to a
transitional government and that the Syrian Army ceases tank and
helicopter attacks against rebel forces..... MORE

A World Health Organization official has stated that the Ebola
outbreak in Uganda is now “under control.” However, a prisoner suspected
of being infected with the deadly virus managed to escape from a
hospital, spurring fears of further contagion.

The inmate’s test results are yet to be determined.

“Should his results come back and he is positive, that causes us a lot of worry,” Dr. Jackson Amune, a commissioner at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, was quoted by CNN as saying.

The
prisoner broke out on Friday night, prompting hospital officials to
handcuff the four remaining prisoners to their beds. The prisoners are
among the 30 people suspected of carrying Ebola at a hospital in the
western town of Kagadi, the center of the outbreak. .... MORESource: RT.com

MANILA — The country’s educators led by the Alliance of Concerned
Teachers (ACT) have another axe to grind against the administration of
Benigno Aquino III.

Last July 20, the president signed Executive Order no. 80. It
provides guidelines for a performance-based bonus. Malacañang said the
performance-based bonus is an “innovative” system to reward
productivity in civil service. The executive order covers national
government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations
(GOCCs.) In the meantime, agencies with fiscal autonomy such as Congress
and the judiciary are, however, “encouraged” to adopt EO no. 80.

In their declarations to the media, various Malacañang spokespersons
said that EO no. 80 aims to encourage government employees to serve the
public better. Aquino himself has said that there is a need to
rationalize the current incentive system in government. Under the
current system, bonuses are given uniformly and across-the-board to all
government employees.

In justifying the order, Aquino said the performance monitoring and
appraisal systems such as the Organizational Performance Indicator
Framework (OPIF) and the Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS)
where the performance of individuals and organizations are measured and
the Results-Based Performance Monitoring System (RBPMS) should be
improved upon or developed..... MORE

“The budget continues to prop up defective policies imposed by
foreign creditors such as privatization while allocating huge resources
for CCT dole-outs to conceal the harsh social impact of such programs
and automatically setting aside a significant portion for debt
servicing.” – BayanBy RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com

MANILA – As the House of Representatives began deliberating on the proposed P2-trillion ($47.74 billion) national budget for 2013,
groups expressed fear that the proposed budget will be “exploited for
electioneering and will not provide free social services for the
Filipino people.”

The proposed budget next year is 10.5 percent higher than this year’s P1.816 trillion ($43.35 billion).
In a statement, multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
(Bayan) said the huge absolute increases in the budget of the Department
of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Public Works
and Highways (DPWH) of P21 billion ($501.31 million) and P26.5 billion
($632.69 million), as well as the P4.8-billion ($11.4 million) hike in
the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program’s budget, “are meant to buy
patronage from local politicians and voters to boost the electoral bid
of Liberal Party candidates.

“If the proposed budget is empowering anyone, it would be the Liberal
Party (LP) of the administration, which is seeking to clinch more local
and senatorial posts in next year’s midterm polls,” Bayan said.

Bayan noted that this could be the motivation behind the rush by the
LP-led appropriations committee at the House of Representatives and the
Senate to finish the whole budget approval process by December.

Despite the anomalies in the CCT program of the Aquino
administration, the budget for CCT or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program (4Ps) will be increased by 12.4 percent from this year’s P39.4
billion ($942.58 million). The Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) hopes to target 3.8 million households for next year.

In a report,
the Commission on Audit (CoA) cited several anomalies in the 4Ps,
including double entries of beneficiaries and unliquidated P6.6 billion
($157.89 million) fund transfers.

Moreover, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also feared that
that the P1-billion ($23.92 million) quick response allocation in the
proposed budget for the Department of Agriculture (DAR) could be “used
as a seed fund for the election of Aquino’s allies.”.... MORE

Under
the acting Carpio Supreme Court, flip-flopping rulings now appear to be
the norm, as the SC yesterday backtracked on its earlier decision
reducing the participation of a representative of Congress in the
Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to one instead of two members of Congress
belonging to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The latest
ruling by the SC displayed once again its vulnerability to pressure
and subservience to Malacañang and Congress as it once again caved in to
Palace and congressional pressure while ruling that the
administration.s congressional allies may sit in the JBC, despite an
earlier decision from the high bench that lawmakers are entitled to
only a lone seat in the collegial body.

In a three-page resolution,
the Court also suspended the effect of the second paragraph of the
dispositive portion of the July 17, 2012 decision which reads: This
disposition is immediately executory.

Just last month the high court recalled an injunction order it had issued the previous day which temporarily stopped the government from implementing a fixed salary scheme for bus conductors and drivers in Metro Manila..... MORE

Two international experts said yesterday that
China’s extensive nine-dash line claim on virtually the entire West
Philippine Sea — which Beijing anchors on history — lacked merit under
modern international laws.

But rival claimants like the Philippines
may find it tough to bring the long-hanging territorial disputes to
international arbitration because of the usually long time it takes to
resolve such rifts and the need for China’s approval before any case
could be considered for arbitration, the experts said.

With the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) unable to effectively
help bring about a resolution because of its policy of deciding by
consensus — which empowers just one of its 10 member-countries to block
any proposed solution — the best option for now may be for bilateral or
multilateral negotiations or shelving the conflicts to allow joint
development of contested areas, the experts explained..... MORE

The move to outlaw hazing and other forms of
fraternity initiation rites has gained the support of the country’s
largest organizations of private universities and colleges, including
Catholic-run schools, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon
party-list said recently.

Herrera-Dy, who filed House Bill 6084, said
the Coordinating Council for Private Educational Associations (Cocopea)
are now in the forefront of other school organizations in supporting HB
6084 which also imposes life prison terms on fraternity men found to
have been involved in rituals that may result in the death of aspiring
or current members.

HB 6084 will amend Republic Act 8049, otherwise
known as “An Act Regulating Hazing and other Forms of Initiation Rites
in Fraternities, Sororities, and other Organizations and Providing Penalties Therefor.”Herrera-Dy, vice chairman of the House
committee on the welfare of children, said stringent laws were needed to
stop fraternity hazing. She filed the bill a few days after media
reported the death of San Beda law student Marvin Reglos last February.

Last
July 30, law student Marc Andrei Marcos, also of San Beda, was
reportedly died of injuries suffered from blows during hazing..... MORE

Tobacco farmers from 10 provinces whose economies
largely depend on tobacco production have every reason to be worried
over the sin tax reform measure pending at the Senate, as next year’s
P73.6-billion agriculture budget allocates nothing for them amid an
imminent displacement seen over the passage of the bill warranting a
708-percent increase in the tobacco excise tax.

In a news feed
emailed to Palace reporters, the Department of Budget and Management
(DBM) said the administration was bent on ensuring sustainability and
security of food supplies across the country but no mention was made of
helping the tobacco planters, whom the government claimed would not be
affected with the passage of the sin tax reform bill.

Thousands of
farmers from the tobacco growing provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur,
Pangasinan, La Union, Cagayan, Isabela, Occidental Mindoro, Misamis
Oriental, Tarlac and Nueva Vizcaya are expected to be the first casualty
of the Palace-backed sin tax reform measure amid the imminent closure
of the Associated Anglo-American Tobacco Corp. (AAATC), which buys
significant locally grown tobacco yields in the manufacture and sale of
low-priced cigarette brands..... MORE